Getting started with Ubuntu
Ubuntu is an Linux distribution based on Debian package management system. Ubuntu is widely used on servers and in the cloud. Ubuntu is composed of thousands of software packages distributed under mostly free and open-source licenses.
Downloading Long-Term Support version
The Long-Term Support versions tagged as LTS are recommended for production environments where stability is a must. For 64-bit machines with 4GB+ of memory pick the amd64 releas, otherwise stick to i386.
For high-end PC-s and laptops the original Ubuntu is recommended:
wget ftp://ftp.estpak.ee/pub/ubuntu-releases/14.04/ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso wget ftp://ftp.estpak.ee/pub/ubuntu-releases/14.04/ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-i386.iso
For low-end PC-s and laptops Ubuntu MATE is recommended:
wget https://ubuntu-mate.r.worldssl.net/trusty/ubuntu-mate-14.04.2-LTS-desktop-amd64.iso wget https://ubuntu-mate.r.worldssl.net/trusty/ubuntu-mate-14.04.2-LTS-desktop-i386.iso
MATE carries on the GNOME classic desktop spirit which many users are used to.
Downloading bleeding edge version
Due to rapidly evolving hardware you might stumble on for example WiFi chip or some other component which doesn't work as expected with Long-Term Support release, in that case you might want to check out later releases.
wget ftp://ftp.estpak.ee/pub/ubuntu-cdimage/ubuntu-mate/releases/vivid/release/ubuntu-mate-15.04-desktop-amd64.iso wget ftp://ftp.estpak.ee/pub/ubuntu-cdimage/ubuntu-mate/releases/vivid/release/ubuntu-mate-15.04-desktop-i386.iso
Writing the LiveCD image to memory stick
All of the ISO images listed above contain hybrid bootloader, which means that same image can be written to CD-R or USB memory stick both.
For Linux there is no need to fetch extra tools to write the image to a USB memory stick, simply use dd:
sudo dd if=ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/sdx # Substitute sdx with your memory stick
Or if you're already root, you can simply use cat:
cat ubuntu-14.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso > /dev/sdx # Again substitute sdx with your memory stick
If you're running on Windows, you can use Win32 Disk Imager to write the ISO image to the USB memory stick
Booting from LiveCD
Reboot your machine and identify the keystroke for temporarily booting from external storage such as USB memory stick. If the machine fails to boot check that Secure Boot is disabled in BIOS.
Once the Ubuntu desktop appears check that all necessary hardware (audio, wired network, wireless network) is properly detected:
lspci -t -v -nn lsusb -t dmidecode
For checking smartcard support for Estonian ID-card you have to install some extra packages:
apt-get install opensc pcscd opensc-tool -l
